


The Kid

by Fuchsia



Series: Puzzle [1]
Category: Figure Skating RPF, Sports RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-24
Updated: 2014-10-30
Packaged: 2018-02-22 10:56:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2505299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fuchsia/pseuds/Fuchsia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Javier reflects on his relationship with Yuzuru, from the moment he's seen him in competition, to when their friendship starts to feel slightly more confusing than what he thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The kid

**Author's Note:**

> I thought this fandom was seriously lacking in English fics, so here I come with mine.
> 
> I've read quite a lot of fics for this pairing already (and left my fair share of kudos ^_^), so I may also have drawn my inspiration in terms of style from a multitude of stories I've read. But this work is of course original.
> 
> English is not my first language, so there were originally far more mistakes in this work than there are now. Thank you to my beta for proofreading all this :)
> 
> \---
> 
> Disclaimer: This work is the product of my imagination. These characters and what they do is purely fictional.

The first time he sees the kid, he is just a blur of glitter and purple feathers. He remembers thinking random things along the lines of ‘God this kid looks underfed’ and ‘why does my left skate feel so much tighter than the right one? Did my foot swell up during the night or what?’. He didn’t really pay attention to him skate but heard his score and thought that this 15 year-old boy dressed up as a swan looked quite dangerous.

The day after he remembers being distracted by the kid’s new outfit: a hideous pink and reddish costume with even more glitter. But at the same moment Nikolai talks to him and what his coach has to say is more important than some horrendous outfit worn by a fellow competitor. At the end of the day the kid did better than him though, like eight other skaters, his left foot still hurts, and Nikolai doesn’t seem happy with him at all. 

The next time he sees him, the kid owns the competition, while he is left brooding in fourth place, just off the podium. But it doesn’t really matter. Brian’s words are encouraging and soothing. None of his feet hurt. And the kid’s outfit is less horrendous than the last time. It is actually not that bad. Even though Javier reflects that not even half of his body could fit in that tiny costume of his. But the boy was impressive, despite the fact that he apparently has to carry a Winnie the Pooh tissue box with him all the time (like what’s that all about?). He asks Brian what he thinks of him, and actually laughs when Brian answers: ‘That weird kid with the Winnie the Pooh tissue box? He didn’t steal his medal that’s for sure’. 

Just like the year before, they will soon meet again in Russia. Javier knows his biggest threat is the kid. He has actually started to pay closer attention to him and thinks his jumping abilities mind-blowing. Along with the way he has of pulling the spectator in with each performance. ‘Maybe it’s the glitter’ he jokes to himself. But no, it’s just the kid’s style. Javier has two quads under his belt, and more maturity, he knows that. But still the kid will be tough to beat.

And the kid beats him. In a squeaker. But still. Javier can’t help but feel deep respect and admiration for this unusual athlete. He congratulates him during the press conference. The kid is shy and can only express himself through an interpreter. But their mutual feeling of sportsmanship and personal appreciation is conveyed all the same.

Here he is again, at the GPF, with this elegant coach of his. And Winnie the Pooh. This time Javier is the one finishing ahead of him and he feels proud. He watches him skate his heart out on Justin Bieber during the gala and thinks of how weird it is to see him in plain jeans and tee-shirt out there on the ice. 

Worlds don’t go as planned. Javier fucks up his FS big time and wants Brian to slap him in the face. Even though he won’t do it of course. But still Javier has a hard time coming to terms with what he’s just done. Or what he hasn’t done right. Not counting what he hasn’t done at all. But the kid flies, and skates with lights out. So much so that everybody has forgotten about Patrick’s second consecutive title, or Daisuke’s sensuous dance. The kid is the talk of the town but Javier doesn’t want to hear about it. Not right now. He heard the public’s roar during his warm up, he heard the standing ovation as the last notes of the kid’s FS music died out. And suddenly he thought he would be incapable of matching that. As well as Florent’s skate. Joubert’s skate. And all the great skates that were still to come. It felt like a giant mountain he would not be able to climb. Is that why he skated so bad? The kid is always capable of making miracles happen. Javier just crumbles under the pressure. 

When Brian announces a few months later that the kid is planning on coming to the Cricket Club, here in Toronto, to train alongside him, Javier almost trips over his own two feet. Brian asks him if he is okay with that, and Javier doesn’t even need to think twice when he says ‘yes’. His admiration for the kid has kept growing, and the thought of seeing him train and actually getting to see what’s going on behind the scene seems pretty exciting. Javier knows that Brian fears he might feel left out, like he actually felt when Florent came to train with Nikolai. At that time Javier basically ceased to exist, as his charismatic coach had found someone apparently more promising than him to mold and control. But Javier knows Brian well. And he feels he already knows the kid well too. The kid may be a shining jewel, but he also seems like a very humble, down-to-earth person. Nikolai and Florent will always be show-offs who need to be the centre of everyone’s attention. Brian and the kid seem more like beautiful, quiet beings who naturally attract the other’s attention without even trying.  
 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The competitions I'm referring to in this first chapter are:
> 
> \- Rostelecom cup 2010  
> \- Nebelhorn Trophy 2011  
> \- Rostelecom cup 2011  
> \- Grand Prix Final 2011  
> \- World championship 2012


	2. The training partner and friend

Javier is not sure when the kid becomes Yuzuru. Not a far away entity speaking a strange language and wearing glittering outfits, but an actual comrade, a training partner and a friend. 

The first time he steps onto the ice of the Cricket Club Brian, Tracy and all the coaches are like mother hens fussing around him, and you can see the kid is embarrassed. He keeps bowing shyly and mumbling incomprehensible thanks in both English and Japanese. Brian laughs and finally grants him some space, giving him both the opportunity of stretching his legs on the ice and a chance of greeting the other skaters already there at the rink. Yuzuru skates towards him and formally introduces himself in broken English words he carefully tries to pronounce. The care he puts in these few words makes Javier smile, and he both bows like Yuzuru and gives him his hand to shake : ‘That’s how we greet in Spain’. He doesn’t know if it’s because of the musical rumble of his Spanish accent or just because he initiated bodily contact so soon, but Yuzuru laughs in a surprised way before he takes his hand and shakes it. 

One thing he learns right away from the kid though, is how quickly his expression changes when it’s time to work and focus. It’s something Javier always had difficulties doing, needing a bit more time to warm up and actually get into his training. Yuzuru on the other hand doesn’t really need to wait for anything, and casually throws some triple axels and quad toes in the air, making quite a lot of skaters actually stop to look at him. Brian laughs again and tells him not to overdo it. You can tell he’s impressed but he doesn’t want the kid to waste his energy on his jumps right now. He beckons him to come over and they quietly speak for a while. Javier cannot hear what they say and doesn’t even try to do so, as by now he’s already shifted his attention back to his own training.

Yuzuru’s arrival gave a kind of impulse, or energy boost to the whole rink at the Cricket Club. His quiet presence is felt even though he’s not doing anything spectacular, but just meticulously reproducing some moves Tracy has just taught him. When a coach gives him instructions he usually gets very close to them, so he can hear them well and focuses on the movement of their lips, as if trying to absorb what they mean. He then sharply nods his head a few times and skates around them while they repeat their instructions and show him what they want him to do. He does the movement in turn and repeats some key words he thinks he understood to himself, before skating towards the centre of the rink and actually doing what he was asked to do. Most of the time the coach comes back almost right away to show him again, as apparently, there was some misunderstanding. But he patiently listens to them again, as they patiently give him their instruction again. And somehow it works. Because the kid learns fast. And his focus is unwavering. 

They usually end practice with some of Tracy’s stroking exercises, that they do to the rhythm of music. Yuzuru starts slow as he is watching what the others are doing, before picking up the pace and endlessly reproducing the same movements again and again. Sometimes the music has been long switched off, and the skaters have long deserted the rink for the warmth of their home, but Yuzuru is still at it. The blades screech and you can tell the kid is exhausted, but that’s usually when he suddenly tries a triple axel out of nowhere and nails it. 

Javier knows because he is sipping a coffee with his girlfriend or some fellow skaters in the lounge, and he watches Yuzuru work almost without pause from the corner of his eyes. 

Sometimes he doesn’t go for a coffee and stays with him on the ice. That’s when Yuzuru asks him for some advice on his quad sal or any other move he is not sure about. Yuzuru looks up to him in a way that makes him strangely proud and shy. And Javier knows when the kid’s eyes are locked on him, trying to absorb once again the movements of his body as he lands a perfect quad sal. He asks him what the jump feels like for him. Javier has never thought about it and takes a moment before answering ‘it strangely feels like I’m not in control, and yet I am. I know I am taking a big risk, but when I take off, I know deep down I am going to land it’. And Yuzuru is not quite there yet, but he wants the same feeling. 

They can spend quite a lot of time on their jumps. Before they are so exhausted that they start falling more and more and goofing around. Spoken language may be a barrier sometimes, but skating is their own common language, and there is no misunderstanding whatsoever between them when they share the same ice.


	3. The quiet hunger

He doesn’t know how, but Yuzuru’s presence creeps more and more into his skating, his life, and his personal space. It is not as if the kid sought his attention all the time, but as his English gets better, and as his body grows stronger, his all presence becomes heavier somehow, and every move of his seems full of an extra something directed towards Javier only. 

Javier thinks that maybe he is the one who started it all, as after all, he is the one who initiated the hugs and the touching. Because Javier liked to touch people. It was his way of establishing contact and beckoning the other one into his world. And at first Yuzuru seemed like he needed a lot of touching: not only because Japanese people had a tendency to keep their bodies mostly to themselves, but because he seemed so tiny and out of place in the big Canadian cold, that Javier had felt the urge to protect him and wrap him up in his arms. Like a mother hen. Or a brother. Just like Yuzuru was doing now with Nam. Not that Nam needed any protection of any sort from the cold of his own home country. But Nam was the little one, the junior. And now Yuzuru felt confident enough to become the big brother in turn. 

But looking at the way Yuzuru takes Nam in his arms and jokingly ruffles his hair, he knows that what they have is completely different from what he and Yuzuru have had from the very beginning. There is no subtle tremor striking Nam’s body as Yuzuru holds him close. There is no lingering hunger in his eyes when the older boy finally lets go of him. And Yuzuru doesn’t seem to quietly marvel at the way the other’s body feels under his touch. When they sit next to each other, Nam doesn’t brush Yuzuru’s hand just enough to create a teasing and tingling sensation. And when they are with other skaters, Nam doesn’t try to discreetly catch Yuzuru’s attention by hovering behind him or holding onto his waist while he readjusts one of his boots. No. Nam just bluntly jumps on Yuzuru without any kind of afterthought, and Yuzuru reacts just as naturally. 

All this didn’t dawn on Javier right away. But as he slowly realizes what kind of subtext is hidden in each and every one of his interactions with Yuzuru, he tries to back away a little, and not give hugs or casual touches so freely anymore. But as he does so, the quiet hunger in Yuzuru’s eyes slowly mixes with a feeling of insecurity and hurt that is even harder to face. 

Javier knows it all started when Yuzuru suddenly ceased to be a kid and grew into something far more difficult to define. He doesn’t want to say a man because it somehow sounds restrictive : Yuzuru’s delicate features and slender figure don’t quite fit the word ‘man’, just as his beaming smile and candor don’t quite fit the word ‘grown-up’. And yet his virility shines through the strength and determination he puts in every one of his jumps, just like his surprising maturity determines every one of his decisions. 

Yuzuru is a curious combination of strength and fragility, that makes him both look harmless and dangerous. Timid and domineering. 

His presence, Javier thinks as he watches him skate in a glittering outfit once again, is both quiet and overpowering. And you cannot take your eyes off of him.  
His graceful moves sometimes look so light and soft they feel like a caress. But the next thing he knows the boy gives himself to his routine with such a wild abandon that watching him skate almost feels like being one with him. As the rhythm builds up and Yuzuru exhausts himself on the ice without any cease or restraint, they both reach a climax that leaves them spent and struggling for air. 

And that leaves Javier with a craving sensation he is not even aware of feeling at the moment, but that he usually ends up quenching later on with his girlfriend, in the darkness of his room.


	4. The other half

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So tomorrow Skate Canada begins, and as a special treat, here comes the final installment of this fic.
> 
> I hope you have enjoyed the ride, just as much as I enjoyed writing this ;)

They usually meet at his place along with Nam to play video games or watch some movie together, but for some reason Nam cannot make it tonight and Yuzuru is already there.

And Javier knows. Just like Yuzuru knows. What they don’t know yet is how.

They haven’t met alone since the incident in the locker room ten days ago. When Javier had felt so exhausted and frustrated with himself he had started crying his eyes out. He hadn’t cried like this for years. Not even after a really bad skate in a competition. Or when he had lost one of his favourite cousins a few months before. Maybe he had delayed it so much that everything had decided to rush out all at once, and before he knew it he was shaking and sobbing all alone on one of the room’s benches.

He had suddenly heard the door swing open and had tried really hard to stop his crying and wipe his eyes, but Yuzuru had already seen him. He had quietly walked up to him, sat on the bench and opened his arms to him. Javier hadn’t even thought twice when he collapsed in his friend’s open arms and let him gently stroke his head and soothe him with words of his own language. Javier couldn’t understand a thing but the foreign sounds he was listening to somehow lulled him into a kind of trance. Almost instinctively, he had buried his head in the crook of his neck and inhaled deeply, while Yuzuru had kissed him on the top of the head.

Javier was still clinging to his friend’s slender frame when he had suddenly realized what he was actually doing. At the same moment he had heard footsteps leading to the locker room and had almost instantly scrambled away from Yuzuru, a mixture of guilt and panic painted all over his face. He didn’t dare look him in the face, as the other skater made his entrance into the room and stopped, aware of having somehow walked into something intimate.

And that’s what had made Javier suddenly run, forgetting his duffle bag and half of its content in the small room. The intimacy. The way he had given in to his hunger for Yuzuru’s touch after weeks of restraint. The way his scent had felt like home. The way his kiss had almost burned him through his soul. The way their embrace had felt so natural, until reality had smacked into Javier like a truck.

 

And now he finally looks him in the eyes, his almond-shaped eyes that don’t give anything away.

Yuzuru bows and nonchalantly puts his jacket away while he tells him about the games he’s brought with him. They will not breathe a word about what happened in the locker room. Not for now.

And Javier plays along with him. Decides which game they’re going to tackle later, while Yuzuru is busy ordering sushis for both of them. They eat and laugh together. They pause and watch some of Javier’s worst performances on Youtube and the comments that go with the videos. Javier teaches him how to pronounce some words he is unable to read, and they laugh some more.

They finally tackle the game and Javier marvels at the way they both just enjoy each other’s company, without any kind of awkwardness. But Javier also knows they both try to exhaust themselves this way to not think too much about what may happen later, once the lights are out and the beds unmade.

Javier is the first one to nod off, as he is unable to control his character’s movements on the screen, resulting in multiple suicides that leave him without anymore lives to spare. Yuzuru gently takes the video game controller from his hands and leads him to his bed, where Javier falls almost instantly asleep.

He wakes up in the middle of the night without being able to remember how he ended up there. He slowly turns on his side and realizes Yuzuru is there too, dressed up in his pyjamas and facing away from him. Javier is overwhelmed with the desire to just reach out and press himself against him, but he doesn’t do so. Instead he exhales deeply and is about to turn away from him when Yuzuru’s voice breaks the silence.

‘’Why you cried last time? You feel better now?’’

Javier doesn’t know what to say, but suddenly, this deep feeling of sadness that had engulfed him in the locker room threatens to wash over him once again, and with an unsteady voice he answers ‘I don’t know’. This goes for both questions actually, as he doesn’t know exactly why he cried, and he doesn’t know whether he feels better now or not.

Yuzuru finally turns and watches him. Javier can barely see his eyes in the dark but he feels them bore into him, making him feel uneasy.

‘’Sometimes it’s good to cry. I never see you cry.’’

‘’I don’t cry. I’m Spanish. Spanish people don’t cry.’’

They both laugh. Javier’s laugh is broken.

‘’Liar.’’

Yuzuru reaches out to him and wipes away one of Javier’s tears. As he is about to take his hand back, Javier encloses it in his own and gently kisses his fingers.

He knows Yuzuru won’t close the distance on his own as he doesn’t want to take advantage of Javier’s distressed state. But Javier also knows Yuzuru could have chosen to sleep on his couch instead of in his bed. He could also have chosen to remain silent when Javier had woken up.

When their lips touch Javier feels the same soft and burning sensation as when he watches Yuzuru skate. And he knows it’s too late to back down.

They kiss slow to start with, tentatively, while their hands search for each other’s body in the dark. They both sigh as their mouths open and their hands start to roam freely under the fabric of their shirts, desperate to taste and to feel more. Yuzuru climbs on top of him, and Javier finally clearly sees again the familiar hunger in his eyes, except that this time it is not half concealed anymore, but naked and raw, making Javier shiver with anticipation.

Yuzuru starts to grind against him while his kisses become heavier and deeper. Javier sucks and nips at his full lips and lets Yuzuru plunge his tongue in his mouth again and again, while his hands travel to Yuzuru’s butt and press their pelvises together. They are both so hard already, he’s not even sure they are going to last long enough for them to undress completely.

As if Yuzuru could somehow follow the train of his blurry thoughts, he takes care of Javier’s shirt and manages to take it off him, while his kisses move downward to his neck and torso. Javier buries his hands in Yuzuru’s soft hair and grunts with pleasure when he feels his tongue and lips move over one of his nipples. While his mouth goes further south, Javier feels he’s already on the verge of losing it and makes Yuzuru stop for a moment, just long enough for him to put Yuzuru on his back and explore his body in turn.

The skin of his neck feels so soft, he feels like his tongue is running over satin. Yuzuru moans as Javier slides his tongue from his neck to his shoulder bone, while his left hand is busy pinching one of his nipples and then caressing his stomach. Javier rolls his hips down again and Yuzuru crosses his long legs around his waist, while their mouths meet again in a passionate kiss. Javier’s tongue darts into Yuzuru’s mouth to the rhythm of his thrusts, while Yuzuru arches his back and pushes himself up. Their rhythm becomes uneven and erratic as their release is close, and Javier’s kisses move again to the silky skin of Yuzuru’s throat.

His ear is full of Yuzuru’s pants and moans when he suddenly feels the body underneath him tense up and fingers harshly pulling at his hair. Yuzuru’s orgasm seems to almost instantly trigger Javier’s who thrusts down one last time and desperately clings to Yuzuru’s twitching body, his groan muffled into his neck.

Their bodies stay locked as they both go limp and try to catch their breath. Javier’s thoughts are still a blur after such a hard and sudden orgasm, but the only thing that seems real right now is the pair of arms holding him and the kiss he feels on the top of his head, as his eyelids feel heavier and heavier.

***

Their bodies only meet in the dark, away from the blinding white of the ice and the shimmering rhinestones of Yuzuru’s costumes. They are friends, colleagues and confidants at day, and only one body at night. The kid is not the kid anymore but a part of himself he is no longer afraid of acknowledging. Of course there is still the pretending and the withholding. His girlfriend. Yuzuru’s public image. Their careers. But they make do.

And when Yuzuru discreetly congratulates him once his scores at Worlds have been announced, he doesn’t care if he smiles like a blushing bride right in front of the camera. Just like he doesn’t hesitate to take him in his arms and let his hands linger on his waist when he congratulates him in turn during the medal ceremony.

He’s always known it. The kid has a way of pulling you in which is simply irresistible.


End file.
